Middlesex County, Virginia

Middlesex County, Virginia
Middlesex County Courthouse in Saluda
Seal
Location in the U.S. state of Virginia
Virginia's location in the U.S.
Founded	1673
Seat	Saluda
Largest town	Urbanna
Area
• Total	211 sq mi (546 km2)
• Land	130 sq mi (337 km2)
• Water	80 sq mi (207 km2), 38.2%
Population (est.)
• (2015)	10,606
• Density	75/sq mi (29/km²)
Congressional district	1st
Time zone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
Website	www.co.middlesex.va.us

Middlesex County is a county located on the Middle Peninsula in the U.S. state of Virginia. As of the 2010 census, the population was 10,959. Its county seat is Saluda.

This area was long settled by indigenous peoples; those encountered by Europeans were of the Algonquian-speaking peoples, part of loose alliance of tribes known as the Powhatan Confederacy. The Nimcock had a village on the river where Urbanna was later developed. English settlement of the area began around 1640, with the county being officially formed in 1669 from a part of Lancaster County. This settlement pushed the Nimcock upriver. The county's only incorporated town, Urbanna, was established by the colonial Assembly in 1680 as one of 20 50-acre port towns designated for trade. It served initially as a port on the Rappahannock River for shipping agricultural products, especially the tobacco commodity crop. As the county developed, it became its commercial and governmental center.

The Rosegill Estate was developed as a plantation by Ralph Wormeley beginning in 1649, with construction of its major buildings through the 17th century. It served as the temporary seat of the colony under two royal Governors of Virginia, (Sir Henry Chicheley, who served under Thomas Culpeper, 2nd Baron Culpeper of Thoresway, and Lord Francis Howard, 5th Baron Howard of Effingham). This and other plantations in the county were developed for the commodity crop of tobacco through the 18th century, which was highly dependent on the skilled labor of enslaved African Americans.